Flipside
by Aelan Greenleaf
Summary: Captain Kirk’s voyage to the Alternate Universe wasn’t the first one…Commander Tucker, Ensign Hoshi Sato and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed are thrown into a universe not their own...UPDATED
1. Default Chapter

Title: Flipside

Author: Eleia Kenobi

Summary: Captain Kirk's voyage to the Alternate Universe wasn't the first one…Commander Tucker, Ensign Hoshi Sato and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed are thrown into a universe not their own…

Category: Drama/Adventure

Rating: PG 

Prologue

"Get back to work!"

The whip snaked down and connected with his back, ripping open a half-healed cut. He cried out, long past the point where he cared anymore. The load in his arms fell, and he scrambled to pick them up again. 

Too late. The whip came down once more, this time creating a gash that led from his left ear to his upper back. Luckily, he contained his scream this time, and limping along the assembly line, cradling the raw materials in his arms.

Behind him, his aggressor laughed. Black-haired and blue-eyed, he spoke with a Terran accent. "Move!"

The whipped man struggled along, shuffling his feet under the weight of his cargo. Beside him, a young boy stood, face blackened like his father by the poor health conditions of the work camp around him. The boy also struggled with a heavy load, one that most likely weighed more than the boy himself. 

The father gestured for the boy to stop, and, quickly enough so not to get a beating, took upon him some of the boy's burden.

The black-haired Terran stopped laughing. "Boy!" he called out, grabbing the attention of several slaves. "Come here!"

  
Unwillingly the boy complied. He came over, blue eyes contrasting deeply to his dirt-stained skin.

"What's your name?" asked the man. 

No response.

"I said, what's your name?!" he exclaimed, whipping the boy once across the back.

The child cried out and fell to his knees onto the ground. His father jumped up, and started to run over, when a fellow worker reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

"No." the other worker whispered. The father understood. He then anxiously watched as his son struggled to his feet once again.

The black-haired man leaned in. "What is your name, _boy_?" he hissed.

The child mumbled something incoherent.

"What did you say?"

"Avery." the boy repeated, this time louder.

"Avery…Well, Avery, seeing how your father has so kindly taken some extra work, we can now give you more, hmm? Let's see… That'll do it, I think." he said, placing twice the amount of the boy's original load into his arms. Avery sagged under the weight, his knees shaking beneath him. Avery's father clenched his teeth in anger.

"You may go now, Avery." said the man, grinning a cruel smile.

The boy made it five steps before collapsing under the weight. His father screamed and ran forwards, dropping his own load onto the ground. "Avery!" the man cried, "Avery!"

Avery's breaths were shallow but steady. The load had fallen onto his left leg, crushing the still-forming bones. It was doubtful that he would ever walk properly again.

The Terran guard, the one that had whipped father and son, soon called for a medic, but not before relishing in the pain of the two relatives. "Oops." he said cruelly as the boy was carried off on a stretcher. 

Avery's father clenched and unclenched his fists, but managed to restrain his anger. He promised himself the he would get the man that had injured his son; the one that had stripped young Avery's hopes away. Oh yes, Charles Tucker would have his revenge, if there was any justice in this universe.

To be continued…..


	2. Chapter 2

Commander Charles Tucker, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed and Ensign Hoshi Sato all entered their small shuttlepod, two of them laughing as they entered. Trip's face was creased with a frown as he silently fumed.

"It's not funny." he grumbled. His two friends just kept laughing.

"Oh, come on, Trip, you have to admit it was funny." said Malcolm, still grinning.

"No, it's not!"

Hoshi was smiling as well. "It's alright, Commander. Everyone makes mistakes. Just not always like that...." She started to laugh softly again, Malcolm struggling not to join in.

Trip plopped down in the pilot's chair and started pre-flight. "Well, how was I supposed to know that, with a different tone and a slight mispronunciation, 'Thank you for your hospitality, Minister.' could become 'May I marry one of your daughters?'"

At this, both of his friends started to laugh again. "I told you, Trip, that Milani was a very delicate language."

"I didn't know that you mean THAT delicate." he grumbled. He turned his attention to the shuttlepod, which had now finished pre-flight and was ready for take-off. He gently lifted the 'pod off the ground, and set a course for their rendezvous with Enterprise.

Hoshi sat down next to him, in the co-pilot's seat. She was still grinning, but didn't say anything. A few moments were passed in silence, before one of the monitors began to beep at Trip.

"Shit." he commented, checking the data. 

"What is it?" asked Hoshi, trying to look over.

"An ion storm." answered the commander, quickly tapping commands into the shipboard computer. "A big one too. Looks like we'll have to go right through it."

Hoshi could see it ahead: a giant, multicoloured cloud formation. Bursts of lightning could be seen from outside the storm. She didn't think that it looked very frightening.

"Bloody hell." muttered Malcolm from the back.

Hoshi was confused. Sure, she had heard of ion storms, but she hadn't taken Spatial Phenomenon at the Academy. "What's so bad about an ion storm?" she asked the two men.

"Ever heard of the S.S. Stormchaser?" Trip asked, without diverting most of his attention from the computer panels. He quickly changed the navigation computer from auto-pilot to manual. He gripped the controls with his hands, and lead the ship in.

Malcolm took over the story as Trip piloted the ship. "The Stormchaser was a cargo ship running out of the Moon. They were on a cargo run when they encountered an ion storm. The Stormchaser tried to go right through it to save time, but since an ion storm is so intense, the ship was torn apart. After that, the United Shippers Company posted a warning to all ships to avoid ion storms."

"Oh." mumbled Hoshi, looking alarmed.

Trip quickly flashed her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry Hosh, they didn't have a pilot like me at the helm."

"That's supposed to be reassuring?" quipped Malcolm.

"Shut up, Mal."

Silence once again reigned, as the Commander piloted the ship through the storm, Malcolm and Hoshi looking on. Only a few bumps here and there were the troublesome things.

Suddenly, the ship rocked when a lightning bolt hit the side of the ship. "Damnnit!" swore Trip as the monitors beeped reporting system failures. "Enterprise is gonna hafta beam us out." he reported to his two companions. 

Hoshi turned pale. She hated transporters, a fact that Malcolm and Trip were both aware of. 

"It'll be alright, Hoshi." said Malcolm. 

She only nodded.

"Alright, Enterprise is gonna take us one at a time. Malcolm first, to make sure it's alright, Hoshi next, then me."

Malcolm scowled at him. "Sure, make me go first." he grumbled. He signalled his readiness and was soon enveloped in a flash of light.

"You're up, Hosh." Trip said.

She looked worriedly at him. 

"You'll be fine." he said, smiling again.

She too was then gone, and only Trip remained. "Commander Tucker, ready to beam up." Lights danced across his vision, and the shuttlepod soon dissipated around him, to be replaced by an environment alien to him...


	3. Chapter 3

As the sparkles in his eyes faded and the world around him became clear, Trip Tucker blinked. Then blinked again. Finding this method not working, he turned to his two companions, who were equally startled.

"Where the HELL are we?" asked the southern Commander, looking around in confusion.

They were inside a spaceship, that much was true, but unlike any one that he had ever seen. Weapons lined the walls around him, bringing him to the conclusion that they were inside of an armoury, but unlike any armoury that he'd ever seen.

Hoshi and Malcolm were standing just in front of them, frozen.

"Where are we?" whispered Hoshi, her shoulders trembling lightly with trepidation.

Trip moved forwards and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It'll be alright, Hosh." he said, smiling and looking down into her deep brown eyes. "Don't worry."

Malcolm was looking forwards, his eyes catching every detail, every object in the room. "We should try to get back to our own ship." he stated quietly, then moved to the centre of the room, when the transporter controls were.

Trip and Hoshi watched with nervous anticipation as the weapons officer poked and prodded furiously at the machine. After what seemed a life time, Malcolm looked up, face grim with defeat.

"I can't detect Enterprise within two light-years from here. Either she was... destroyed in that ion storm, or this is Enterprise."

Trip could feel Hoshi trembling under his arm. "Maybe we should explore our surroundings, see what we're dealing with." he said quickly.

With Malcolm in lead, the trio headed cautiously out of the transporter room, and into parts unknown.

*_______________________________________________________*

"What do you mean you don't know what happened to them?" asked Jonathon Archer, irritation and anger creeping into his voice.

"I meant precisely what I said, Captain." replied T'Pol calmly. "One moment we had a lock on them, and in the next moment they were gone."

The captain of the Enterprise stomped over to the Vulcan's science station and looked right into his science officer's eyes. "How do you just lose three people?! Either you had a lock on them, or you didn't!"

"Uh, Captain?" called out a voice behind him. Archer swivelled around to find his young helmsman facing him.

"Yes, Travis?"

"It's quite possible that the ion storm has something to do with this. I know that we lost a lot of freighters and cargo in those storms. Strange things happen in them." stated the young ensign.

Archer sighed. He was over-reacting, again. Trip, Malcolm and Hoshi were probably all still fine on the shuttle, wondering what the hell was happening with the transporter.

"T'Pol," he asked, "Can you raise the shuttle again?"

The Vulcan turned back to her instruments, then answered a moment later. "Negative. The ion storms are interfering with communications."

"Damn!" the captain exclaimed. A moment later, he added: "Is there anything we CAN do for the pod?"

"No. At last reading, the pod was headed straight into the middle of the storm. We can do nothing without endangering more members of the crew."

He sighed again, sat down into his chair and placed his head into his hands. He prayed that his friends were still alive, and that he could still save them...

*Sorry for such the long, wait, but I was writing another story. Hopefully the next chapter will be up within the next few days.

~Aelan*


End file.
